THE RIGHT LINE

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] motorcycle racing this is the magnet which year after year draws countless thousands of spectators to circuits all over the world and this is solitude seen at the German Grand Prix one of the classic events counting the warts of oil championships here you will find the big-time international riders men like Rhodesian Gary Hawking MD works team rider after barely two seasons of European racing on private entries New Zealand our John Hempleman on an MZ two-stroke japan's kun omitsu Takahashi on one of the fabulous Honda fours and Jim Redmond also a roadies Ian and also on a Honda in every crowd you will find thousands of youngsters who perhaps like you would like to become the hockings of tomorrow but apart from expensive machinery what of riders like Hawking a newbie Ollie got that you haven't well maybe nothing but experience but it's experience that has been gained the hard way for a motorcycle sport there are no shortcuts to success an experience comes only with practice by riding and organised events as often as you can believe me you can't learn to race on the public roads what sort of events well join the club and have a go at trials for a start here you have the supreme example the Scottish sixties trial organized by the Edinburgh and District Motor Club slow yes but common or mountain modern rocks can teach even would be races a thing or three about machine control and you'll find great names like Jeff Duke Sammy Miller and Ron Langston on many a shining national trials trophy the bikes pretty standard trials machinery could be used for everyday transport at a pinch but right now they're off for six days of mountaineering among the Heather and the haggis run by really experienced types like Jack Leslie X road racer and trials Rider trials are running sections on this one Glen ogle is pretty easy provided you prefer near gaze throttle wrist and a well balanced personality five teams to our directly a master of throttle control on the difficult section and here's our tease team mate Roy Peplow annex sign rider who won the Scottish in 59 how's that the bottom and tall ladies to chill savage from Farnborough Hampshire hard-luck Jill a few more rumba lessons needed there I feel it's not quite as simple as the works men make it look [Music] but let's move on to something much more difficult now at grey mayor's rage this all saw some of them out total control balance path picking you have to have mastered the lot to get up here without foot slogging Alice Tommy McNab gray mares rich can teach you plenty including fifty subways are parting the dust Peter gurney Peter Davey Donald Witten re or old Uncle Tom Cobley but not all when you can handle the machine like market gardener Gordon Blake way you are nesting in the top branches of the trials tree for some trials riding is it and if you decide this is your sport there may be a works ride waiting for you but if you are hankering after pure speed your next step should be scrambling it's the mixture as before only much faster so over to the British motocross Grand Prix at Hawkstone Park to see what the world's finest Rough Riders have to teach us Stan London and last gustafson of Sweden on monix Don Richmond and his Matisse whose engine started life as a standard Triumph Tiger hundred and BSA pilot Remy Julian from France 25 stars from seven European countries ready to do battle for world championship points on a course passed for lack of rain and played out through overuse here they come to line up engines running in front of the elastic starting tape lightning reflexes mean everything in touch starts like this they're off streaking like jet the pulse and the neck of an hour go to light the study for now chaps the leaders have already snatched a terrific advantage over the back markers and championship runner-up bill Nelson of Sweden oSIsoft Bonner ahead of Delhi Rickman's Matisse as they storm oftens one-in-three Hill with Don Rickman man after them leaving the rest to find their way by faith open astronavigation luckily conditions aren't usually so bad even in championship events but here's an unscheduled hazard for John Burton and Ralph tiblet it's in John Ambulance men moving unlucky Derek Rickman has broken a leg but even in races as rugged as this accidents are rare compared with road racing of course speeds a relatively slow it only feels like riding a pneumatic drill through the sound barrier let's save her to master the Dental Arts of infighting Cox flopping fast cornering and braking on all bearing surfaces where 999 times out of a thousand the worst you'll suffer is a few bruises and a deflated ego even with a Matisse many a road racer would have got off and walk around there but Don Rickman's lying second the head of psays Arthur Lampkin and champions stand London sorry about the dustier can't stop now and Gunnar Johansen of Sweden these Belgians Roger vanderbeken through the Sam fish fighting to catch London now battling bill Nielsen has built up nearly a minute's lead and that was what's basically an engine destined for the Swedish army scrappy that's another advantage of scrambling relatively standard machinery can be tuned to concert pitch if you've got the right brand of bread and even new models are far cheaper than races besides being much less prone to develop expensive noises provided you fit in efficient air filter just as well in the circumstances whoops-a-daisy before our friend explores the undergrowth let's watch Bill Nelson's flawless technique as he finishes his winning ride [Music] [Applause] how's that the mastery of man over machine well when you've learnt to control a motorcycle over this sort of ground this sort of speed you'll be just about ready to try a drop of the hard stuff real Road circuit racing several circuit meetings are stays nowadays especially to beginners and if you've learnt all you can from bars and scrambles or even if you take the blind bit of notice of the advice I've given you in the spring your fancy will probably turn to thoughts of racing at some place like cadwal par where although entries are usually oversubscribed a few novices are invariably given rides and as often some ex ace like Austin monks around to help them one thing you won't have learnt elsewhere is the runnin bump start technique fuel on select bottom gear back against compression wait for it either way drop the clutch in you're off sooner or later [Music] Chadwell is an idea of course for learning the rudiments of railroad racing with its wide variety of hills and bends where expert use of brakes and gearbox and save seconds are left and with a longish straight where you can really get down to it what's more it's narrow enough and a sufficient solid scenery around it to demand a first-class passing technique airline navigation unlike some of the aerodrome circuits where you can blithely point the front wheel and the general direction of next week with plenty of a demo before you're brought up short if you run out of Road Gadwal packs all his charms into 1.3 miles or sometimes a shame all right now you have made your racing debut and naturally u21 but for all those jets under the counter works machinery so now let's see what else is needed to become a really top-notch privateer and who better to show us than Bob McIntyre and his sponsor Joe Potts of bells Hill Glasgow Joe's the backroom boy and business brain but there's no daylight between Mac's ears either particularly when it comes to tuning racing motorcycles and his advice is preparation 1 seasons hardly over before Bob's preparing for the next aid advice mechanic Tim Fleming that means hours of precise patient painstaking work almost drudgery at times but with racing engines cleanliness is next to lustiness and precision in preparation can mean the difference between success and failure few riders enjoyed Bob's first-class facilities like that Heenan and Froude test break the fewer still could use them all over him as Mac has since his debut as a Clubman in 1951 and he has all the inborn engineering abilities so typical of the Scots with the aid of the test brake he reckons to be able to tune his ajs and Norton engines to suit any circuit you like to mention all winter much of the summer - you're finding hard at it squeezing every ounce of latent power out of his single checking and rechecking their performance [Music] and that's only a star power increases in the engine may alter the handling on the track so as soon as the models nailed together bobs off to Alton Park without mr. king to teach it their way around to check carburation gear ratios suspension the lot it needs all the qualities of a test pilot able to dark nose the slightest Fault in mid-flight but with now ejector seat if things go wrong fasten your safety belts and we'll follow him round the course it's up in a second for all four corners into third down the Avenue [Music] and back down to second the Cascades it needs a special line in teams to withstand this sort of treatment and what's more there's never a square inch of my guitar in the breeze a split second longer than Navy in the third pass the island [Music] and right down to first of that other petrol companies baby through the gears again until max in top at the brow the hill [Music] down to third and broke [Music] [Music] they're not the top again [Music] before changing down to second the Druids [Music] up to third just before the footbridge and then it's time to start changing down the first of the Lots corner Bob's ending his first lap now so how would you like to have a go yourself keep an eye on the rev counter don't go above 8,000 and any gear and the best of British luck to you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] hmm not at all bad for your first time round with Bob of course this sort of things happening all the time checking his handiwork and testing your equipment always with a single aim in view to win races and above all to win another tourist trophy that one day maybe your aim to so let's go after the Isle of Man it's Wednesday June 15 1960 anew day and a new look for the junior TT six laps of the Mountain Course instead of seven and riders away in graded fares at 10-second intervals but Bob Bernie's ajs will start alone for Gary Hawking has stretched he's off with nearly two and a half hours of fierce concentration to go before the checkered flag favorite John Surtees on the nv4 and young Mike Hailwood with his ajs soon they'll alert the narrow line of rubber all round the 37 and 3/4 mile scores the right line let's see them late for Megan Taran Bray chat by 13 on the quarter bridge and Bella crane get offline on one corner and you'll be off it for the next half dozen but there's nothing wrong with Surtees line of phallic rain mech streaks down from big arrow doing about 130 there and here's John Hart all already ahead of direct mint as normal but the laughs thirties is leading on the road so max AJ still can't hold that mp4 and behind them portal leads winter and Bob Brown once passed ramsey you're marching up that great high hill 1,400 feet in five miles then over the mountain and eight miles further on his 30s marching down again from Kate's sweeping through Craig Navarre for the second time hello looks as though something may be wrong there may be four on the next lap powerful cuts the lead by nearly 20 seconds but the champion still going strong at Hillberry the next time round and straight past the pits to start his fourth circuit yes sir T still leads but he's slowing [Music] Chadwell star george catlin comes in to refuel a mcintyre also refuse having decided against a non-stop run off he goes down Bray Hill and threw quarter bridge in pursuit of power and a bradden bottles already made up another second also on 30 now watch the lines through Ramsey John Marvel I'm Bob McIntosh max past the waterworks he's gaining on 30s too and round the gooseneck braking and gear changing perfectly coordinated not a split-second wasted that's the perfection of an ending practice and here's neat work by John Lewis and Eddie crooks on Governors Orford camber good for them but not for John Surtees that's signal gremlins in the gearbox which are going to cost him the race last lap and heartless now firmly in the lead at sole be Bob's overhauling the temp can he catch him sir T's embiez thinking now but Butch's impeccable style the Ramsey hairpin no Mac can't do it he's nearly 20 seconds behind surtees as he lines up he'll bury for the last time the checkered flags ready and ironically powerful scores his first Grand Prix win on the fall within a few weeks of resigning from the MB team so although all the midnight oil burnt in bells Hill didn't bring Mac victory to finish third the first all British combination of man and machine after 226 miles of the toughest testing yet devised should be enough to satisfy most people except you of course nothing will satisfy sir but it works right in the Continental Tasik very well back the way we came in Germany solitude the Grand Prix Takahashi hulking Hempleman all with works mounts which they've never raced here before last-minute checks completed the tension mounts 30 seconds to go team managers and mechanics leave the starting grid the flags up Gary Hawking streaks into the lane shouldn't wonder if he learnt that dodge from sergey's he and little Karla will be re of pulling well away but the feels after them like a swarm of bees in June's a stream round blem say hello something's happened yes Kolby Ollie's slid off on a damp patch where muds being swept away and here's the order as Steinbach say MB impermanence aid Dickey dalem save and to bury MV Hawking holds his lead at by him at the back of the field Pacquiao is in the Hunter game windscreen hole and his let megaphone wearing a distinctly injured expression here come the leaders through Sandler order as before [Applause] here's Carlo third from last in 22nd spot he's really got to get on with omitting out of that fella Gary's still romping away like a bankrupt from the bailiffs he's already built up a hundred and fifty yard lead over his pursuers three quarters of the way through lap - it's still hooking in the lead followed by Hempleman - very and Dale having a terrific strat for second place and ooby always already steps back another eight places to slip into 40 for the race roars our MV team manager nerrit began is giving a watchful eye on things and none better able to plot race strategies in this experts race 18 seconds lead that's clear enough but Honda's Oriental hieroglyphics bespoke the opposition six laps gone now to Barry and Dale are almost riding one another's machines are buying him in the tear up a second place and now will be always opened up all the stops and a determined effort to move up into sixth birth what's Tanaka and Tucker here she glanced anxiously over their shoulders as Carlo closes the gap [Music] discounting hooking at the start of left seven is now Dale head permanent to bury in second third and fourth places and who BR is now in sixth close kampelman the very Dale and you'll be always closing along rapidly now Dale is taking over from the very of this chasing Apple but never say die Carlo has them in his sights had lost all three dicing furiously but they're sitting ducks for the tiny streak of lightning from Bergamo just before by hangin during a meteoric a flat ubi Allah passes all thrilled to move in the second place taking tanaka with him into third position despite obr his or inspiring ride during which he gobbled up 21 places in only 57 miles Hawking's lead was so great there with only three legs to go we are able to make any impression on the lad from Boulevard now within certain side of victory and so young getting offing wins his third Grand Prix and his first season as a works rider collar will be always a splendid second as an ARCA third to gary Hawking the victors laurels and a well-earned place in the Hall of Fame to you who dream of following in his wheel tracks remember there are no shortcuts to success don't try to race before you can really arrive try trials for a star then accelerate through scrambles to gain experience a wheel to wheel dicing which will prove invaluable in road racing and spend as much time on preparation as you do in the saddle then even if you don't win a Grand Prix and never land a works contract you'd at least have a lot of fun trying [Music] [Applause]